The Asterisk War, Vol. 2: Awakening of Silver Beauty Page 9

  “How do you train usually, Amagiri?”

  “Train?” It seemed like an odd question. “Um, in the mornings, I run and work on my forms. Then I practice sword strokes. Then, in the afternoons, I’m working with Julis on our tag team fighting, so…”

  “Mm-hmm…”

  Then Ayato noticed that Kirin was diligently taking notes.

  On top of that, she began to ask for details. “How much do you run? Do you have a set route? Oh, and…”

  Ayato saw now that she wasn’t simply forcing a change of subject. She was asking out of genuine interest.

  After he had dutifully answered her questions one by one, Kirin let out a long breath in satisfaction. “Thank you so much. That’s very helpful.”

  “No problem. You’re really thorough.”

  “Yes, I always learn a lot by hearing how good fighters train,” she said with a bright smile. “I’m in charge of my own training regimen now, but sometimes I’m not sure… And I can’t spar by myself.”

  “Oh, why don’t you join our sessions, then? I mean, if you want to…”

  “Wha—?” Kirin’s eyes went wide at the unexpected offer. “W-would it really be okay?”

  “Um, well, I’ll have to ask Julis first, but it should be fine, I think.”

  In his head, Ayato could already see Julis looking displeased as she scolded him—“Don’t go around making promises so rashly!” But surely she would understand, if he just explained the situation to her…

  Kirin’s face lit up for a moment, but she quickly looked down, disheartened. “I’m sorry… That’s so nice of you to offer, but my uncle gave me strict instructions to keep my distance from ranked fighters…especially any Page Ones.”

  “Huh? Why’s that?”

  “He doesn’t want me showing my skills unnecessarily to the competition.”

  Well, that is cautious of him, Ayato thought. “Okay. Then, you can join me for my early morning workouts.”

  “Morning workouts…?”

  “I’m not in the Named Chart, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right?” With his lack of rank, he reasoned, Kouichirou would have no reason to complain.

  “S-so, you mean, it would be…just the t-two of us?”

  “Yup. Nothing to worry about there.”

  Kirin looked at the ground, seemingly conflicted.

  “Huh? Is something the matter?”

  “N-no. Um…I’d like to take you up on your offer.” Kirin nodded shyly.

  “Okay. I’ll message you later about where and when, so…”

  And so they exchanged contact information.

  While they went on discussing various parts of the training regimen, they arrived at the girls’ dormitory.

  “Um, thank you. For going out of your way like this…”

  “No problem. It was nice.”

  “W-well, then, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Kirin bowed from the waist, bending almost a full ninety degrees, then trotted away into the dorm.

  Watching her go, Ayato let out a small sigh.

  By now, night had fully descended upon the campus, and a beautiful moon floated in the ultramarine sky. The wind seemed to have picked up a bit, judging by the murmur of rustling leaves that filled the promenade.

  Within that quiet evening atmosphere, Ayato could feel a faint hidden presence.

  From where, he wasn’t sure, but someone was watching him. Not hostile—definitely someone, though.

  Where could they be…? He looked around, moving only his eyes, trying not to let on that he was searching for the observer.

  There was no one on the promenade besides him. The only places where someone could hide would be behind the trees, or—

  Above me?!

  Ayato looked up with a start, and in nearly the same instant, a small shadow shook the branches above and leaped down onto him. It grabbed on and clung to his back just like something from a ghost story.

  “Augh! …Wait. S-Saya?”

  He was startled for a moment but turned just enough to see that the creature clinging to him was his current classmate and old friend.

  A friend from whom he knew to expect such eccentric behavior. He sighed in relief and rebuked her in the next breath. “Don’t scare people like that… Took ten years off my life.”

  “…Who was that?”

  Completely ignoring his protests, Saya tightened her arms, which were wrapped around Ayato’s neck. This, of course, resulted in strangling him.

  “Guh—! Hey, Saya…! I can’t breathe!”

  “…Just answer me. Who was that?”

  “I—I can’t answer…with no air!”

  “…Oh.”

  Finally understanding the problem, Saya let go of Ayato and hopped off his back. “Sorry. I got suspicious and I tensed up without thinking.”

  “I—I’ll live…,” Ayato managed, coughing. “But what were you doing up there anyway?”

  “I was looking for you. ’S more efficient to search from a high vantage point.”

  That only prompted more questions. “Looking for me? Why?” Ayato asked.

  “It’s regarding the tag team partnership. I want an answer from you.”

  “Oh yeah…”

  So this was about the Phoenix. Apparently, Saya was serious about participating.

  “Sorry, but I’m teaming up with Julis. That’s not negotiable.”

  I made a promise to her, after all.

  “…I see. All right.” With that, Saya simply backed off.

  She was stubborn by nature, but once someone else was firm in communicating their position, she could readily accept it. This sort of exchange with her had been a regular occurrence, way back when.

  Saya returned to the other subject. “Now—who was that?”

  Was Ayato imagining the hint of wariness in her eyes?

  “That was Kirin Toudou,” he replied. “She’s a middle school student. You haven’t heard of her from the school news or anything?”

  “…Oh yes. The number one ranked student you dueled with yesterday.”

  “That’s right.” He nodded.

  But Saya frowned. “She’s in her first year of middle school…” She glared in the direction that Kirin had run off, then fixed a stare down at her own body and patted herself down—her chest in particular. “The world abounds with injustice.”

  Ayato could understand what she was getting at but decided he was better off keeping his mouth shut on that subject. “Well, you know, she’s a lot like you in some ways.”

  “…What ways?”

  “She told me she came to this school for her father’s sake. I don’t know all the details, but that reminded me of you.”

  Saya took this in quietly, neither affirming nor denying the comparison.

  With her usual unexpressive manner, she mumbled to herself. “Her father…”

  The next morning, Ayato arrived in front of the high school building five minutes ahead of the time they’d agreed on. He found Kirin already waiting for him.

  “Good morning, Mr. Amagiri.”

  “Good morning, Miss Toudou.”

  Of course, Kirin was not in uniform yet, dressed instead in a simple but adorable athletic set. She wore a large pouch and her katana at her waist.

  “Okay, so let’s start with a run,” Ayato said. “…Though, actually, we should stretch first.”

  “Sure!” Kirin said.

  They went through stretching exercises, in part to warm up.

  Ayato was glad for the chance to do stretches that required two people. Every time Kirin moved her torso, however, her chest bounced accordingly, and he had to avert his eyes. It was continually surprising to remember that she was only thirteen.

  And with two-person stretches, which required bodily contact, here and there her chest ended up touching him, which was even more disconcerting.

  With Claudia, he could tell she was mostly teasing, and it was easy to dismiss as just that. But with Kirin, the contact was completely innocent, which somehow made i
t worse—he had no idea how to deal with it at all.

  “Is something wrong?” she said.

  “Oh—no, nothing.”

  Kirin tilted her head at him blankly as she went on stretching. The sight made one expect sound effects: boing, boing.

  One contributing factor was that her workout clothes showed her curves more clearly than her uniform did.

  “Hey, Miss Toudou, which way do you usually run?” he asked.

  “I leave the school, then I run around the outskirts of the island.”

  “Oh, you go out?” Ayato’s running exercises consisted mainly of short-distance sprints, so this sounded like a welcome change of pace to him. “All right. Maybe I’ll try it, too.”

  “All right. I’ll lead, then,” Kirin said with a bright smile.

  Ayato had begun to notice it yesterday, but Kirin was a very expressive girl.

  She might spend more time with her face looking downcast or sad, but when she smiled like that, he thought, it was really very charming. So cute, in fact, that it made him want to pet her head.

  “Is something wrong?” she said again.

  “Nope. Nothing. Please lead the way.”

  Ayato was starting to get accustomed to life in Asterisk, but only within the bounds of Seidoukan Academy. He knew no more about the city than what Julis had shown him, and other than that trip, he hadn’t even gone for a walk off campus at all.

  “Okay. I will!” Kirin suddenly seemed very enthusiastic, her eyes shining with earnest determination. “Oh, but before we start… Do you use a weight, Amagiri?”

  “Weight?”

  “Um…like this.”

  Kirin took something resembling a vest from her waist pouch and handed it to Ayato.

  It looked as heavy as blocks of stone. Most ordinary people would have difficulty even lifting it.

  “On the school grounds, running at our normal speed isn’t a problem, but that wouldn’t do off campus.”

  “Oh, right. I guess it’s not very safe.”

  Even at a light dash, Genestella could easily run at the legal speed limit for automobiles. At full speed, there was no comparison. If they collided with an ordinary person at such a speed, obviously that person would suffer serious injury, or worse. And barring unusual mitigating circumstances, injuries caused by Genestella to ordinary people resulted in extremely harsh punishments—even when it was an accident.

  “If we wear these, we won’t go very fast,” Kirin explained. “It’s a good workout, too.”

  “Gotcha.”

  At home, Ayato would go running only in isolated places like the hills out back. A contrivance like this allowed for refreshingly different possibilities.

  “I brought one for you, too. Would you like to use it?”

  “Thanks. I’ll give it a try.”

  He put it on and confirmed that it was as heavy as he might have thought. It would definitely be effective.

  “All right. Let’s go.” Kirin started to run ahead, leading the way.

  CHAPTER 6

  MENACE IN THE MIST

  “You seem to be spending a lot of time with Kirin Toudou.”

  The voice came abruptly from behind Ayato as he stood in front of the meal ticket vending machine at the Hokuto dining hall, trying to decide what to have for lunch. He turned to see a girl with splendid rose-colored hair, standing there with a sullen look on her face.

  “Oh, it’s you, Julis. Are you about to get lunch, too?” He was alone today, since Eishirou was low on funds and Saya was getting a lecture from Kyouko for oversleeping and being late to class. But Ayato believed food tasted better with company, so he went ahead and invited her. “Since we’re both here, you want to eat together?”

  “Oh—well, hmm, if you insist, I suppose I could…” Julis looked away shyly but nodded to accept, and it was plain from her expression that she wasn’t altogether displeased.

  “I think I’ll have the chicken curry today.” From the air-window displaying the available meals, Ayato selected the picture of curry prominently featuring chicken on the bone. Ordering via a ticket vending machine was a rarity these days, but he liked that about this dining hall. “What about you, Julis?”

  “Hmm… I can’t decide between the pasta set or the one that comes with dessert…” She studiously pondered the air-window with her hand to her chin, but then she suddenly looked up at Ayato to shout at him. “Wait—that’s not the problem here! I want to know what you and Kirin Toudou are—”

  Making a wild gesture, she accidentally touched an item on the air-window.

  “Oh…”

  “Huh…?”

  With a gatunk, the vending machine dispensed a ticket printed with the words “Special Spicy Curry.”

  “Oh, that’s the Hokuto dining hall’s famous dish,” Ayato said. “It’s supposed to be super hot—”

  “It—it’s fine! That’s what I wanted anyway! I’m going to find us a table, so you go pick up our food!”

  “Uh, okay…”

  Spurred to urgency by her tone, Ayato gingerly went to pick up the two plates of curry and immediately noticed that one of them was devastatingly potent. It looked just like the other, but he could tell from the aroma that it was far spicier.

  That aroma alone was enough to sting his eyes, so strong that it made him think twice about picking up the plate.

  “Ayato, over here.”

  Julis waved at him from a table by the wall.

  “Here we are, Julis. But are you sure? This smells really intense.” He placed the tray in front of her and watched as a bit of uncertainty crept into her face.

  “I said this is what I wanted! Now tell me what you’re doing with Kirin Toudou!”

  “Um, well, we just started training together in the morning, that’s all.” He answered honestly, since he and Kirin were hardly doing anything unusual.

  Julis seemed to relax a little.

  “Oh, were you worried that I was giving away my fighting skills? Nah, it’s totally fine. We’re only doing really basic stuff, and I’m not breaking my seal. Besides, Toudou already knows a lot about my skills from our duel, so—”

  “No, that’s not what I…,” Julis started, not quite satisfied with something, but then she sighed and weakly shook her head. “Never mind. If you can talk about it like that, I clearly had nothing to worry about.”

  Ayato wasn’t sure what she meant, but she seemed okay with him spending time with Kirin. That was a relief. “Anyway, Julis, you haven’t taken a bite yet… Is it okay?”

  “Er…”

  Her plate of special spicy curry was as full as when he’d brought it. She was stirring it around with her spoon without taking a single bite.

  “If it’s too hot for you, you don’t have to finish it. You could order something else—”

  “Idiot! I’m not going to waste food!”

  He wondered if it was the influence of her friends back home that made her so reluctant to let food go to waste despite her upbringing as a princess.

  With a fierce resolve, Julis brought her spoon to her mouth. She didn’t make a sound, but her face turned crimson, then white as a sheet.

  “Hey, Julis! You really shouldn’t force yourself if you—”

  “Ngh. I—I’m fine…! This is nothing!” she blurted, her voice shaking and her eyes full of tears.

  Then she chugged her cup of water. She did not seem at all fine.

  “Um, well, what if we switch?”

  “What?!” Her eyes went wide in surprise.

  “Mine is pretty spicy, but I bet it’s easier to eat than yours. I mean, if you want to…”

  Julis sat there frozen, stiff as a statue.

  “Oh, I guess you wouldn’t want it after I touched it with my spoon…”

  “N-no! That’s not it!” She ferociously shook her head. “I don’t care about that! Actually—” Then she gasped at her own words and stopped herself mid-sentence. “A-anyway, I mean, I ordered it, so the responsibility to finish it is mine. I
can’t pass it off on you.”

  “That’s just like you, I guess.” Ayato was almost impressed at how stubborn she could be. But then he thought of a way he might convince her. “So, this might not be a big deal…but if we’re going to be effective partners in battle, don’t we have to be able to speak to each other honestly and not hold anything back?”

  “Oh… Um, well…”

  It might be something of a dirty trick to hold the Festa over her as a persuasion tactic, he thought, but maybe this would get her to think more flexibly.

  For a few moments Julis anxiously looked back and forth between Ayato and her special spicy curry. Finally, she held her plate toward him with both hands, shy and faltering.

  “Then…um…can I…switch plates…with you?” she asked timidly, looking up at him with watery eyes.

  There was something cute about that, different from the usual Julis, and he felt his heart begin to pound.

  “Ayato?” She tilted her head at him.

  He nodded hurriedly. “Oh, sure! Of course!” Then he traded his chicken curry for the special spicy curry.

  “Th-thank you,” Julis said, and brought her spoon to her mouth again. Was it because of the spicy bite from earlier that her face seemed a little red?

  Julis is really cute when she says how she feels…

  Of course, Julis was beautiful as her usual stubborn self, too. Maybe it was simply the departure from the norm that made it feel all the more striking.

  As Ayato was lost in those thoughts, he absentmindedly threw a spoonful of the special spicy curry in his mouth—and was stunned by the sheer force of its spiciness. He barely managed to finish it himself before the lunch recess ended.

  A bronze-skinned woman walked in a hurry, the hard clacks of her footsteps echoing down the long corridor.

  The corridor was in Allekant Académie, in the underground block of the research building—in fact, the most high-security area of the block. This area was off-limits not only to anyone from outside the school, but also to students in the practical class, and even for those in the research class, excellent academic performance was not enough for admittance. Only researchers with a proven history of results were allowed in here.